John Williamson, Conservative MP for New Brunswick-Southwest, took to the floor of the House of Commons on Thursday to denounce the registry. He raised eyebrows when he channeled Martin Luther King Jr.'s most famous speech.

"Free at last, free at last, law-abiding Canadians are finally free at last," Williamson bellowed. Surrounding MPs can be heard in the video echoing his declaration.

We keep hearing about scrapping the long-gun registry, but really what we're talking about is scrapping the requirement for people to register their rifles and shotguns - that's what Bill C-19 aims to do by making amendments to the Criminal Code and Firearms Act. Once passed, people will not have to register their non-restricted or non-prohibited firearms. It also provides for the destruction of existing records in the Canadian Firearms Registry for those firearms.
With files from CBC

It's a centralized database overseen by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that links firearms with their licensed owners. It contains information about all three types of guns that must be registered - non-restricted, restricted and prohibited. (All firearms must be registered.) To register a firearm, you have to have a licence to possess it.

No. Canadian residents need a licence in order to possess and register a firearm or ammunition and that won't change. There are a couple of different kinds of licences because of various changes to laws and regulations over the years.

There are three types of guns under Canadian law: non-restricted, restricted and prohibited. Most common long guns - rifles and shotguns - are non-restricted but there are a few exceptions. A sawed-off shotgun, for example, is a prohibited firearm. A handgun is an example of a restricted firearm. Different regulations apply to different classifications of firearms.

As of September 2011, there were about 7.8 million registered guns. Of those, 7.1 million are non-restricted firearms.

The government says it is wasteful and ineffective at reducing crime and targets law-abiding gun owners instead of criminals, who don't register their firearms.

Police and victims' groups are big supporters of the registry. Police say the database helps them evaluate a potential safety threat when they pull a vehicle over or are called to a residence. They also say it helps support police investigations because the registry can help determine if a gun was stolen, illegally imported, acquired or manufactured. This year, the RCMP says police agencies accessed it on average more than 17,000 times a day.

The government has passed the legislation and the registry no longer exists. Except for in Quebec, where an ongoing court challenge means the owners must still register their guns in the province.

The government is doing this to ensure that no future non-Conservative government can recreate the registry. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has also made it clear that if any province wants to set up its own registry it would get no help from the federal government. The Conservatives are so fundamentally opposed to the existence of the records, because they say they focus on law-abiding citizens instead of criminals, that they don't want them available for anyone to use.

The registry cost more than $1 billion to set up in 1995 and the cost was the source of much controversy. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said on Oct. 25 that the government's best estimate is that it costs about $22 million a year to operate. That's the entire registry, not just the long-gun portion, but he noted most of the guns in the registry are long guns. He said he didn't know how much money scrapping the requirement to register long guns would save the government. Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner says there are also "hidden costs" that are borne by provincial and municipal police agencies to enforce the registry.

Rob Anders, the same MP who called Nelson Mandela a "terrorist," falls asleep in the House of Commons (From Question Period on November 17, 2011)

NDP MP Jonathan Genest-Jourdain (Manicouagan) does his hair and then appears to fall in asleep in the House of Commons on February 6th, 2012. Follow me on twitter: @sleepyrobanders - www.twitter.com

From February 16th 2012 - only a couple of days after being mocked nationally for having fallen asleep in the House of Commons, NDP MP Jonathan Genest-Jourdain (Manicouagan) makes a joke out of a serious motion on First Nations education by primming his hair before speaking. Follow me on twitter: @sleepyrobanders - www.twitter.com